Recycling Center to Take In Much Greater Volume

Ventura’s recycling center will greatly expand operations today, two days after the Ventura City Council approved agreements with a recycling company and the city’s two rubbish haulers.

The city-sponsored Gold Coast Recycling Center has been receiving between 20 and 25 tons per day from single-family residences since mid-June. Today, the center will begin receiving an estimated 100 tons a day from businesses, recycling coordinator Eric Werbalowsky said.

Last week, the center received permits from the California Integrated Waste Management Board, allowing it to receive commercial loads.

Finance Director Terry Adelman, who oversees the city’s recycling program, said the state permits were necessary because up to 30% of commercial loads consist of non-recyclable waste mixed with the recyclable materials. The permit allows the city to handle the non-recyclable solid waste left over.

More than 98% of residential loads can be recycled and no state license is needed for that program.

Apartments, condominiums and mobile homes will be added to the recycling program in two to three weeks, Werbalowsky said.

The recycling program cleared its final hurdle Monday when the City Council licensed the city’s two rubbish companies to continue trash-hauling operations and begin collecting commercial recyclables.

The council voted unanimously to approve six-month contracts with E.J. Harrison & Sons Inc. and Ventura Rubbish Service. The city normally hands out one-year permits, but this year shorter-term agreements were granted on the expectation of working out a five- to 10-year franchise contract with the rubbish companies.

City officials said a franchise agreement would make it easier to map out a city strategy for solid waste in the next decade. The city is under a state mandate to reduce solid waste by 25% before 1995 and 50% by the year 2000.

Both rubbish companies are owned by the Harrison family, which has been involved in the city’s trash business for more than 30 years. The Gold Coast Recycling Center is also partly owned by members of the Harrison family and its president is Jim Harrison, the son of E.J. Harrison.

At a public hearing before the vote, about a dozen business owners praised the Harrison companies for their services and asked the council to renew their contracts.

But not everyone was happy with the council’s decision. Morteza Yassani, president of Rubbish Control Inc., said the council was denying him the chance to compete with the Harrisons.

“It is my perception that the council is not for the best interest of the consumer but for the best interest of the city hauler,” he said. Rubbish Control has tried unsuccessfully for years to operate in the city.

At the meeting, Yassani submitted the results of two surveys of businesses affiliated with the Greater Ventura Chamber of Commerce showing that about 80% of the respondents would like the Harrison companies to have a competitor. He submitted letters from 13 businesses asking for competition.

But city officials and Jim Harrison countered that trash hauling should be regarded as a utility instead of a competitive business.

More rubbish companies would add to the city’s traffic congestion and cause the city to lose control over its long-term trash-hauling and recycling policies, they said.

“Now more than ever, rubbish collection should be regarded as a partnership between the city and its franchise company,” Harrison said.

City Manager John S. Baker added that Rubbish Control had not proven that the city needs another garbage hauler. He said the city would evaluate the survey results submitted at Monday’s meeting.

City officials did not rule out that Rubbish Control or another trash company could be included in the franchise agreement now in the works.

The council also voted to set aside a $500,000 recycling fund to help pay for start-up costs until the program becomes profitable, which would require a volume of between 125 and 250 tons per day--depending on fluctuations in the volatile market for recyclable materials.

Ventura officials are counting on the participation of neighboring cities to meet its daily tonnage quota. So far, Oxnard and Camarillo have expressed interest in using the Gold Coast Recycling Center, but no agreement has been reached.